Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/391

  to Lord Burghley. An epitome by Camden entitled 'Institutio Græcæ Grammatices,' London, 1597, 8vo, passed through numerous editions. He also published an enlarged and corrected version of a 'Lexicon Græco-Latinum Joannis Crispini … ex R. Constantini aliorumq. scriptis … collectum,' London, 1581, fol., dedicated to the Earl of Leicester. Both these works are rare. Grant contributed verses in Greek, Latin, or English to Lhuyd's 'Breviary of Britaine,' translated by Twyne, 1573; Prise's 'Historiæ Brytannicæ Defensio,' 1573; Ramus's 'Civil Wars in France,' translated by Timme, 1573; Baret's 'Alvearie;' Gabriel Harvey's 'Grat. Valdinens. lib. ii.' (on Leicester's arms); and John Stockwood's 'Disputatiunculum Grammaticalium Libellus.' He also lamented Bishop Jewel's and Ascham's deaths in Latin verse.

 GRANT, ELIZABETH (1745?–1814?) song-writer, of Carron, is vaguely known as the writer of one song, 'Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch.' She was the daughter of 'Lieutenant Joseph Grant, late of Colonel Montgomerie's regiment of highlanders,' and was probably born about 1745, near Aberlour, on the Spey, Banffshire. She was married about 1763 to her cousin, Captain James Grant of Carron, near Elchies, on the Spey. Grant being unfortunate, sold Carron in 1786 or 1787 to Robert Grant of Wester Elchies, and in 1790 he died within Holyrood. Mrs. Grant was afterwards married to Dr. Murray, a Bath physician, and she died at Bath about 1814. A portrait of her is at Castle Grant, where, however, little is known of herself.

'Roy's Wife,' Mrs. Grant's only known production, instantly became popular, and it remains a favourite among standard Scottish songs. Its allusions bear upon persons and places on the Aberdeen border of Mrs. Grant's native county. There are fragments of a legendary lyric with several of the same references, but 'Roy's Wife' has completely superseded this, besides appropriating to itself the old 'Ruffian's Rant' to which it is sung. Writing to Thomson in 1793 and 1794, Burns refers to the song, and himself makes a little English experiment to the same tune, in a conciliatory address to Mrs. Riddel. As in these letters Burns calls the air 'Roy's Wife,' while his 'Ladie Onlie,' written for Johnson's 'Museum' in 1787 is set to the tune 'The Ruffian's Rant,' we get an approximate date for the appearance of Mrs. Grant's song.

  (1658–1726), Scotch judge, the elder son of Archibald Grant of Ballintomb, Morayshire, a descendant of, third laird of Freuchie [q. v.], by his wife Christian, daughter of Patrick Nairne of Cromdale, was born at Ballintomb in 1658. He was educated at King's College, Aberdeen, and afterwards at Leyden, where he was a favourite pupil of the learned civilian, John Voet. Soon after his return to Scotland he took a prominent part in the discussions on the constitutional questions arising out of the revolution. Some of the older lawyers insisted on the inability of the convention of estates to make any disposition of the crown. Grant strongly opposed this notion, and published a treatise arguing strongly for the power of the estates to establish a new succession. Grant was admitted an advocate on 29 Jan. 1691, and, owing to the reputation which he had made by this treatise, quickly acquired a large practice. In the exercise of his profession we are told that he 'was very scrupulous in many points; he would not suffer a just cause to be lost through a client's want of money … and with respect to clergymen of all professions, his conscience obliged him to serve them without a fee' (Biog. Brit. iv. 2256). He was created a baronet of Nova Scotia with remainder to his heirs male by patent dated 7 Dec. 1705. A few years later he was appointed an ordinary lord of session in the place of James Murray, lord Philiphaugh, and took his seat on the bench on 10 June 1709 as Lord Cullen, his title being derived from the name of his paternal estate in Banffshire, which had been ratified to him in 1698 (Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, x. 160-1), but which he afterwards sold. In 1713 he purchased the estate of Monymusk in Aberdeenshire, which is still the residence of his family, from Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo. On 17 May 1720 he obtained a grant of supporters and an addition to his coat-of-arms, at the same time taking as one of his mottoes the words 'Jehovah Jireh,' the only instance in Scottish heraldry of a Hebrew motto. He died at Edinburgh on 23 March 1726, and was buried in Greyfriars churchyard on 26 March. He was a deeply religious man, a learned lawyer, and a conscientious judge. Wodrow records: 'His [literary] stile is dark and intricat, and so Rh